[autotag]Alex Bowman[/autotag] turned up his performance in the 2024 NASCAR playoffs, and Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway was another example. Bowman was able to survive the carnage and will take a 26-point advantage over the playoff cut-line going into the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte ROVAL. However, it didn’t come without some drama.
Following Stage 2, Ryan Blaney expressed frustration at Bowman after the No. 48 car gave him a bad push, causing a big wreck on the front stretch. Blaney blamed Bowman for the wreck, and the Hendrick Motorsports driver took responsibility as well.
“We had kind of gotten pretty far back in track position obviously; got stuck in the fourth lane, and that just killed us,” Bowman said. “Just overall kind of disappointed in myself. I made the wrong move a lot, and I crashed (Ryan Blaney) with just a crappy push. Obviously, just trying to push him to try and help our lane for the stage and just hit him in the wrong spot. I hate that I did that. I hate that I made the wrong decisions that I did, and I didn’t do a very good job today.”
https://twitter.com/nascaronnbc/status/1843026214715305989?s=46
“Frustrated because we had a really good Camaro today. The team did a really good job, and we obviously had moments where we were really good. But just execution-wise, I made too many mistakes and put us in too many bad spots. Obviously hate that I ruined some other guys’ days too.”
Bowman has made few mistakes during this playoff run, and it has worked out in his favor. Blaney may race Bowman a little differently moving forward, but that’s also the product of superspeedway racing. For now, Bowman will focus on making the Round of 8 and look to turn up the heat on the competition even more over the last five events.
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